Do I need to reserve in advance?

Depending on where you go camping, you may need to book your campsite months in advance. We typically stay at state parks. Therefore, I don’t have too much experience when it comes to boondocking (that is camper language for camping without hookups) or dry camping (that is camper language for staying at a campground without hookups). Especially boondocking typically does not require you to reserve a spot in advance so the “book early” advice does not really apply here anyway. Our state parks here in Washington State allow you to book online 9 months in advance. There is a huge demand for the peak summer weekends and campsites for those are always sold out fast. Most state park reservation systems have a mechanism to roll over the reservation window at a certain time in the day. So if they, for example, roll it over at 7am their local time and you want to book a campsite in exactly 9 months from now, you have to be online at 7am their local time and hit the reservation button. Note that you will be in good company as other experienced campers will be doing the same. A lot of those guys know which campsite they want because they stayed there before or they saw a campsite they liked last time they were there and they made a note to book it next time. We do the same thing. How about this? When you go to a campground, look for sites you like and which you would like to book next time you come to this campground. Write down the campsite number or take a pic with your phone/camera. Anyway, that’s how it works for some state parks, national parks and bigger campground chains. Some reservation systems are better than others. Also, smaller and privately owned and operated campgrounds sometimes only allow reservations by sending them an email or giving them a call. In cases where you won’t be able to book online, they will probably ask for your credit card number or ask you to send them a check. Some of them even go so far to (snail) mail you your reservation conformation and campground information. Obviously, for those guys, having an expensive online reservation system is not worth the expense. Just go online and explore the exciting world of campsite reservations. Regardless if you book through a reservation system, email or phone, sometimes it’s not clear which type of campsites are available and how they look. In this case, you can email or call the contact and ask them if they can show or send you a campground map with pics to explain what the sites offer, how they look, how easy they are to get your camper parked, etc.